Airport Ground Procedures...

[Krister 51]

Adam,getting info like this directly from the guys who are actually doing it daily is of course the best way, but I can also strongly recommend the DVD's from ITVV. It's very likely that you are aware of them, but they are extremely interesting to watch and you pick up a lot of tricks that you can apply in MSFS. It's not a coincidence that you see a lot of 744 with the callsign VIR-19 flying over the pond on VATSIM! :)http://www.itvv.com/ I have most of these DVD's and they are all brilliant.

[Guest Jeffhew]

Hey Adam,The fact that my thoughts occupy precious storage space on you system gets me all twittered. No, seriously, I'm glad to help. There are alot of people here with similar experiences and all love to help folks looking for a real life experience. If I can help you any further, give me a shout.BTW, that's some nice scenery you've got there. Maybe down the road you could help me out with some scenery down in New England.Have Fun,Jeff

[Guest abent]

Hey guys,Krister, I had a look at the weblink you sent and am seriously contemplating ordering the 767-300 ER DVD. The description sounds good. I find sometimes if my interest in flying is waning ever so slightly, I just head on over to Jetphotos or Airliners, have a look at a few real aviation pics, and I'm pumped again for flying. No doubt after watching this DVD, I'll really be revved up. lolJeff, man, everything you post will be copied to a notepad. lol This is great stuff. So much to be learned! I did a flight today KSFO - KDEN and followed some of your procedures including firing up the apu a few minutes before pushback to start the engines, and shutting down engine 2 for the baggage handlers etc. All great stuff!!!Cheers, :-beerchugAdam

[Guest Jeffhew]

I'm glad to see that you enjoyed your flight. Funny you flew to Denver as that was the aiport I was visualizing in my head as I was describing the procedures. Pat yourself on the back because you just experienced "As Real as it Gets". Throw in ActiveSky, Radar Contact, UTUSA, and GEPro and you're set for a lifetime of adventure and learning. Incidently, when I said to run number one from 45 sec to a couple of minutes, it is because it can sometimes take that long for CS to get down to the bridge. The B concourse is just under a mile long. The A and C a bit less. It can be a long run when a trip shows up early or has to change gates. Fly Safe,Jeff

[Guest abent]

Jeff,"Throw in ActiveSky, Radar Contact, UTUSA, and GEPro and you're set for a lifetime of adventure and learning." Ain't that the truth. I have 3 of the aforementioned. I must re-install Radar Contact. I used to use it a lot. Do you have any experience with VoxAtc? A buddy recommended that to me the other day - considering picking it up.Oh yeah, happy to help with scenery stuff. Are you interested in learning about it and making sceneries yourself? If so, I do online tutorials all the time - always looking for new victims! :-sae :-lolAdam

[Guest Jeffhew]

No, sorry, never used Vox. I took a look some time ago but it was pricey compared to RC and the voice sets sounded rather robotic to me. Things may have improved though. I've never had real good luck with voice recognition software. I would recommend that you try out your buddies before you dive in though.I've been working on some of the smaller fields in west central Massachusetts but I'm having some issues with aprons and stock buildings. It just seems that to alter an entire airport requires a number of programs that work good but, the end result is that all the components of the different programs don't always work and play well with others. For example, I can alter the aprons in the base airport BGL file but, when I go back to add all the buildings and such, I can't see the aprons and runways any more. I'm just a total novice when it comes to this stuff and it gets frustrating. BTW, this is FS9. Anyhow, when we both have some free time, I'd love to take you up on your offer. One other thing I'd like to find is some Nova Scotia scenery. My family is from there originally, founded it actually. Up around Wallace. Thanks Adam,Jeff

[Guest abent]

Advice taken re VoxAtc. My pal lives in Ontario - I'm in the Maritimes - so I wouldn't get to actually try it out myself. As far as the scenery stuff goes, it's really quite easy once you get going. We use GMAX primarily for the modeling - quite intuitive - with a little practice. Just a small handful of other freeware programs allows us to do everything we need. Were you planning on visiting airports and photographing the buildings etc? If you were, I'd be more than happy to go over some GMAX/photo editing stuff with you. I'm more inclined to do smaller airports these days as a large airport can take several months to complete. I'm sure you would thoroughly enjoy doing a small airfield to start. Anyway, let me know what you're up for and we can go from there.Cheers man,Adam

[Mike T 208]

Hi Adam:One more for you from Continental.Widebody aircraft are "slow turns" so generally pilots are on board 1:15 before departure and boarding starts :45 before departure. Unless its the first flight of the day the aircraft is almost always on ground power and air. So much so that it does get uncomfortable in the summer but unless it get's unbearable the APU stays off. In the winter the ground air is good enough to keep the aircraft warm enough.APU on about 15 - 20 minutes prior to departure.When taxiing back to the gate we would always shut down one engine as soon as we clear the runway and taxi on one engine to save fuel. Also, APU is powered up on the way to the gate. We the shut down the engine as soon as the parking brakes are set and cut to APU power prior to gate power and air. Once gate power and air is established then the APU is shut off.This is also true when possible for taxiing to the runway. One engine until we are about number 3 or 4 for take off or within 1000 feet of the departure end and then fire up the second engine using crossbleed air from the running engine (APU off).Now, if the aircraft is running late and the goal is to kick the passengers off and throw the new ones on as quickly as possible the APU will stay on, no ground power and no ground air. It's easier and cheaper to keep it on and there's one less thing to worry about when its time to leave.Overnight all power is disconnected from the aircraft and the battery power is disconnected. This makes for one COLD *SS airplane in the winter when you are taking it out on the first flight and the temp on the aircraft is the same as the temp on the jetway which is more or less the temp outdoors. Narrowbody aircraft are quite different whereas they are pretty quick turns during the day so the APU will stay on for most of the day unless there is sit-time inbetween turns. Here the crew must be onboard 1:00 before departure and boarding starts at :30 before departure. However, the flights never seem to get in on time and the crews are rushing on and off the aircraft so there really is no reason to shut down the APU at all.Finally on the regional jets (ERJ-135, 145 and CRJ) the APU is ALWAYS shut down as a rule at the gate the moment ground power is established (when time allows of course). You may notice that Continental has wingless on just about every aircraft now a-days and besides looking very cool, they save about 3% in fuel costs. Now a days every single gallon of fuel saves money and the pilots also get a bonus based on fuel saved (believe it or not). So right now, the APU will get shut off as much as possible and passenger comfort will have to suffer just a tad in return for higher profits which is why Continental can afford to put pillows and blankets on their airplanes while other airlines don't have them anymore. Besides its cheaper to give a passenger a blankie when he is cold than to run the apu for 30 - 45 minutes of boarding :-lolSo, just another perspective for ya. HTH,Mike T.

[Guest abent]

Hi Mike,Thanks for the excellent info. Interesting that they would taxi on one engine. I imagine that might be hard to do in FS with the asymmetric thrust.lolWould I be correct to assume that the Continental pilots leave the power on in the plane after the plane's last flight for the cleaning crews etc as Jeff's company does? And then, someone else comes along and powers it down?Well, it will be fun to simulate a cold start in the am. One question on that, if you don't mind - I hope it hasn't already been answered, or implied in your post: In the am cold start, would that be done by requesting ground power and/or air and then fire up the apu, or would they just turn the battery on and then fire up the apu? I'm leaning towards the former as I bet the apu would require more to start it than the battery could provide. Hope my ignorance of a/c systems isn't shining through. LOLThanks again,Adam

[Guest Jeffhew]

Well I wouldn't say "shining through". More like a single ray of light. :-hah :-hah :-hah :-hah (couldn't resist)The Bat is enough to get the APU going, Adam.

[Guest abent]

>Well I wouldn't say "shining through". More like a single>ray of light. :-hah :-hah :-hah :-hah >(couldn't resist)>The Bat is enough to get the APU going, Adam. > :-lol more like a single synaptic spark. Good, I won't have to pester the ground crew as much as I have been lately!Thanks Jeff,Adam